Ilan Reich last Thursday turned a Cirrus SR22 into a powered parachute
and in doing so possibly saved his own life and perhaps those of people
on the ground. He broke his back and found out he'll probably never fly
again, but, given the host of much more serious potential results, he's
not really complaining. In a detailed account of the short flight that
ended with a parachute descent into a creek near Haverstraw, N.Y.,
Reich describes using power from the still-running engine to avoid
dropping onto the fuel tanks that supply a conventional power plant
there. "I applied right aileron and rudder, and rocked the power lever
to make sure that the engine still had power. These actions caused the
plane to gently veer away from the tank farm and over the water," Reich
wrote. Reich was returning the plane to his home base at Westchester
County Airport from maintenance at nearby Lincoln Park, N.J., when he
blacked out at the controls. Rather than risk continuing the flight, he
pulled the chute and hoped for the best. Despite a more dramatic (and
less comfortable) outcome than some other Cirrus chute deployments,
Reich remains sold on the concept. "Don't fly a single engine plane
that isn't equipped with a parachute," he advises in his account of the
incident.
Click through for Reich's account of the event, in his own words.
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